This invention relates to individual sections of multiple section glassware forming machines and to processes of forming glassware using such machine sections.
In co-pending patent application Ser. No. 024,646 of Thomas Vincent Foster, filed on the same day as the present Application there is described and claimed an individual section of a multiple section glassware forming machine which comprises three operating stations which are, respectively, a first station including a blank mould for forming a parison, a second station in which reheating of a parison takes place, and a third station including a blow mould for finally shaping an article of glassware, and independently operable first and second transfer means, the first transfer means including a neck ring structure and actuating means for moving the neck ring structure from a first position in which the neck ring structure engages a parison in the blank mould at the first station to a second position in which the neck ring structure releases a parison at the second station and returning the neck ring structure from the second position to the first position prior to the formation of another parison in the blank mould at the first station, and the second transfer means including gripping means and actuating means for moving the gripping means between a first position in which the gripping means engages a parison at the second station and a second position in which the gripping means holds the parison in such a location at the third station that the blow mould at the third station can close around the parison.
In the glassware machine sections described in the said co-pending patent application, the second transfer means includes first and second gripping means which are movable simultaneously between first and second positions by the second transfer actuating means, the second gripping means transferring the shaped articles of glassware from the third station to a takeout position beyond the third station, for example a deadplate.
In the said co-pending patent application the group of machine functions for forming a parison from a gob of molten glass at the first station is defined collectively as a primary cycle. The group or sequence of machine functions for forming an article of glassware in a blow mould at the third station is similarly defined as a secondary cycle. The apparatus described and claimed in the said co-pending patent application enables the time for which the parison is reheated after its formation in the primary cycle and before the formation of the article of glassware in the secondary cycle to be adjusted without altering the time of operation of any of the machine functions included in either the primary cycle or the secondary cycle relative to the timing of any other of the machine functions included in the same cycle. Thus, when the reheating time of the parison is altered a corresponding consequential change is effected in at least one of the groups of machine functions respectively constituting the primary cycle and the secondary cycle. Such a process is also claimed in the said co-pending application.
In one of the embodiments of apparatus described in the said co-pending patent application the first station includes an upright top-opening blank mould in which the parison is formed, and the present invention is particularly concerned with an improvement in and modification of this embodiment of the invention described in the said co-pending patent application.